


A Turn in the Events

by teabox



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-28
Updated: 2015-01-28
Packaged: 2018-03-09 12:16:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3249350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teabox/pseuds/teabox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Selina is not happy and Jim - because is Jim - tries to help.</p>
<p>[Post Ep.13's confrontation between Selina & Bruce.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Turn in the Events

**Author's Note:**

> A silly something just because in my mind Selina should have a teeny-tiny crush on Jim.

On second thought, the mistakes were several. Several and stupid.

Selina shouldn’t have allowed herself to walk along the streets of Gotham still troubled by the last meeting with Bruce. She shouldn't have turned around to that "hey, you" she had heard. And, above all, when she recognized Detective Gordon, she shouldn't have tried to run away without looking where she was going.

That way, she wouldn’t have stumbled, it wouldn’t have slowed down her escape and Detective Gordon wouldn’t have been able to grab her by the arm and stop her.

 

«On the run as usual, I see», he said with that vague expression of reproach that he seemed to reserve just for her.

Selina - annoyed with herself, with Bruce, with Gordon and probably with the whole of Gotham - tried to free herself by pulling her arm. «Would it be possible to walk through this damned city for more than five minutes without being stopped by anyone?»

«Good morning to you, Selina», replied Jim amused.

« _Jim_ », she said drily.

«Detective Gordon to you», he corrected her.

Selina pointed a finger at herself. « _Cat_ to you.»

Jim rolled his eyes. «Glad to see you are okay.»

Selina stiffened for a moment. The words the detective had used reminded her of Bruce and, consequently, a string of unpleasant feelings associated with that particular last encounter. She yanked her arm again. «Yes, I'm perfectly fine. Absolutely, perfectly fine. Never been better in my life, thank you very much», she said drily.

Jim raised an eyebrow, before letting out a small laugh.

Selina looked at him irritated. «And what would be _so_ funny?»

He shook his head. «Nothing, it's just that you remind me of myself.»

«I remind you of a middle-aged cop with an alarming tendency to not mind his own business?», she said without even trying to hide the sarcasm.

«For the record I’m thirty-four, Cat. And no», replied Jim calmly, «you remind me of myself when I don’t want to talk to anyone.»

Selina snorted. «Very well, then. Since we are so insightful, detective, why don’t we just end this meeting here? As you can see, I’m still alive and I'm fine, right?»

 

Jim knew that it would have been better for him to simply follow that suggestion. He knew Selina was impossible to manage on good days, so he could only imagine what she would be on a day like that.

But perhaps for that very reason - because it was obvious even to him that no, Selina was not well and that no, it was not a good day for her - Jim decided to go against his best judgement and ignore the easy solution.

«Why do not we have a coffee, instead? My treat.» He saw almost immediately the refusal surface on Selina’s expression and preceded it. «Consider it a personal favor. I'm dying for a coffee, but I do not like to sit at a table by himself. The waitresses always feel compelled to ask if everything is okay.»

 

It was obvious that it was an excuse and not even a particularly good one. It was obvious to Selina and it was obvious to Jim how much it was obvious to Selina. And yet something in the girl seemed to give in a little.

She lowered her shoulders a bit and squeezed her eyes slightly. «Coffee», she said cautiously. «And a bagel.»

Jim smiled. «Deal.»

Selina wrinkled her nose and raised the arm that Jim was still holding. «I’m not going to run away, okay? You can let me go.»

Jim released her slowly, still not quite sure. But she stood next to him, though her expression was ridiculously bored, as if she was doing him a great favor.

 

Not that Selina had planned for things to go that way. She had thought that she would easily find a way to break free - after all it was the Detective Gordon she was talking about, the man was too good, too honest and too full of good intentions. Which, translated, it meant easy for her to handle.

But something, at some point in that brief encounter, had stopped her.

She told herself that certainly it hadn’t been the expression on Gordon’s face - an amused note and a worried one - that made her feel tired. And insecure. And young.

She told herself that certainly it hadn't been the idea that he, unlike Bruce, couldn’t certainly want something from her and so his interest was - maybe, possibly - to some extent sincere.

She told herself that certainly it hadn’t been the way he had invented an obviously ridiculous excuse just to make her feel more at ease in accepting his offer.

No, Selina thought, it certainly hadn’t been any of that. Instead, she told herself, it had been the idea of being able to sit in a diner, ignoring Gordon and enjoy a coffee and a bagel without having to steal them, for once.

Nothing more. Nothing complicated.

 

*

 

The diner was terrible. There was no other way to describe it.

Yet, precisely for that reason, Jim and Selina felt perfectly at ease. As if both had known that something just a little more refined would have made them feel terribly out of place.

«So», said Jim taking a sip of coffee. «What happened?»

Selina looked up at him, her hands still on the bagel that she had ordered. «I do not know what you mean.»

Jim leaned slightly toward her. «I’m referring to the fact that as much as your gracious personality is always unpredictable, today it seems more unpredictable than usual. So to say.»

Selina took a piece of bagel and began to tear it into pieces. «Again, I do not know what you mean. _So to say_.»

Jim sighed returning to lean back against his chair. «If I can help in some wa-»

«Why does everyone in this city wants to kill me or help me? Have I not already said that I'm perfectly fine?»

 

Jim let a moment pass. The bitter coffee seemed to reflect the air that had filled the corner of the diner that they were occupying. «You are obviously not perfectly fine.»

Selina folded her arms across the chest and looked out the window of their booth, closing herself in a stubborn silence.

«And since those interested in killing you are more or less under control», continued Jim cautiously, «who is trying to help?»

She kept staring beyond the glass. «I'm not even sure he wants to help me. I guess he thinks he can change me or something.»

Something in Jim’s stomach knotted a bit.

Gotham did not spare anything to anyone, especially if like Cat - _Selina_ \- you were one of its creatures. The streets were full of unscrupulous people and there were those who would be willing to do anything to get their hands on a girl - a teenager, for God's sake, just barely more than a child - like her.

 

Jim cleared his throat, trying to keep in that bit of anxiety that had attacked him. «Who are you talking about, Cat? Who is trying to change you?»

Selina must have caught something in his tone of voice, because she looked at Jim confused for a moment, before bursting out laughing. «I do not know what kind of movie you are playing in the head, detective, but by the expression on your face I would guess that it’s quite wrong.»

He refrained from asking again who she was talking about and tried to wait patiently for her to offer that piece of information.

«Bruce», finally said Selina after a moment. Her hands had captured again the bagel and had returned to torture it.

«Bruce Wayne?»

«Yes, Bruce _Wayne_. What, you think I'm lying?»

Jim raised his hand. «No, absolutely not ...»

He tried - and failed - to say something that would explain her the fact that he felt terribly relieved by the idea that, for once, Selina’s problems were simply those of a teenager like many others and not even remotely close to the scenarios that went through his head.

 

A vaguely uncomfortable silence fell between them.

Jim did not know exactly what to offer, his experiences with teenagers were few and unsatisfactory, and his sentimental experiences were probably better to forget altogether.

Selina, on her part, had spent the last two minutes wondering why she had opened her mouth and how she could sneak away and leave behind not only Detective Gordon, but also those thoughts that she desperately had tried to avoid.

«Probably it’s not of any help», said Jim suddenly breaking the silence, «but for what it's worth, I do not think you need to be changed.»

Selina looked at him incredulously and full of suspicion, but Jim failed to notice because his eyes were glued on his coffee.

«Of course, your lifestyle is not…ideal. And I don’t even want to think how many times and in how many ways you must have broken the law. Not to mention the fact that many people might think that I shouldn’t be here having a coffee with you, instead of arresting you and sending you to a house of correction. But, see, the point is exactly this», he said finally raising his eyes upon her, «I don’t think you need to be corrected. Because - happy to admit it or not - it’s obvious to me that you are not a bad girl.»

 

Selina did not feel embarrassed easily. And generally, when she happened to experience it, she had an arsenal of methods to protect herself from it. Yet at that moment, with Detective Gordon in front of her and among them two cups of coffee and a crumbled bagel, she found nothing better to do than to blush.

Jim gave her a half smile. «May I emphasize, though», he said leaning a little toward her, «that I said “not a bad girl” and not that you're a good one.»

Selina laughed. «Well, if I were a good girl I wouldn’t be who I am, right?»

«Exactly my point», said Jim smiling satisfied.

He took a last sip of coffee and left a few bills on the table. «And now I have to go back to work. My break is over.»

 

Selina got up with him and followed him out of the diner, hesitating for a moment on the sidewalk. «Thank you, Detective», she finally said looking down, her hands hidden in the pockets of her jacket.

«Sure», replied Jim amused by that moment of shyness. «One last thing, Selina.»

« _Cat_ », she corrected him.

Jim sighed mocking exasperation. «One last thing, _Cat_.»

She crossed her arms and looked at him curiously.

«Whatever Bruce said, I'm sure he did not want to hurt you. It’s in the male DNA the inability to talk to a girl without making some mess. I don’t think he would want you other than the way you are.»

Selina looked down for a moment. «If you say so.»

«I say so», he replied smiling at her. And since she was not looking at him and so she wouldn’t be able to stop him, Jim did something risky and potentially dangerous. He put a hand on her head and patted it gently, as he would have done to a child.

Selina, surprised, moved her head sharply. «Hey!», she exclaimed annoyed and embarrassed in Jim’s direction, who was already walking away. In response, however, she only received a wave of his hand and a half laugh.

 

Selina thought about it for just a moment, looking at the detective’s back blending in with the rest of the people on the sidewalk - something strange in the way she knew she would recognize him anywhere, just like she would do with Bruce.

She bit her lip for a moment.

She took a first step. She took a second. She then found herself running to him. Catch up with him.

She clung to Jim’s arm, pulling him with enough force to make it bend a little on the side, toward her. She kissed his cheek, without really being able to look at him.

And them she ran in the opposite direction, a smile on her lips and a laugh in her throat.

 

Jim, instead, remained for a moment on the sidewalk, trying to figure out what had just happened. Reasoning, then, that probably, after all, it was better not to ask.


End file.
